"Oi."

"..."

"Maimo."

"... snort."

"Wake up dumbass."

"..."

"I know you're awake."

"Hm..."

Sanji had just about enough. He knew the idiot Marimo fell asleep in strange places but this was just ridiculous. "Get the fuck out of my kitchen," Sanji said to the man who was currently splayed out on his back, 'sleeping' under the kitchen table. Sometimes Sanji wondered if he did this just to spite him but he doubted if the other man was smart enough to put together such an intricate plan. Someone who got lost on their own ship on a fairly regular basis most likely didn't have the means or the intelligence to formulate such a plan. Despite his inferior intellect however, he had to admit, Zoro always was a little too good at finding new ways to annoy the HELL out of him.

A low chuckle was heard from under the table, breaking Sanji out of his brief reverie. He knew that dumbass was awake. Now if only he could get him out of his kitchen. "I'm not going to say it again, get out of my kitchen or die."

"Don't wanna..." Zoro mumbled, obviously still sleepy from his nap. He turned on to his side, facing Sanji.

Sanji caught a brief glimpse of a grin on Zoro's face before it disappeared and his regular, deep set scowl returned. So the idiot WAS doing this just to mess with him. "I'm gonna kick your ass shit-head." Sanji snarled, finishing the sentence with a light kick to Zoro's shin, hoping the idiot would get the point.

"Mmhmm... Yeah you do that", Zoro said before opening his eyes and tilting his head upward to look up at Sanji. "Here's an idea, why don't you just come and get me instead?" Zoro asked in a unreadable tone, that same grin reappearing on his face.

Sanji raised an eyebrow at that. Zoro had said some strange things to him before but nothing that could be taken in such a suggestive manner. What was the Marimo trying to get at? Usually Zoro was pretty straight forward when he wanted something. Was this his roundabout way of asking for a sparring session?

"What're you talking about? If you wanna fight then get up and fight, lazy-ass. Make it quick though, I still have to make dinner." Sanji said coolly, pulling out his lighter and lighting a preparatory cigarette for the eventual battle ahead.

Zoro shook his head. "No."

Sanji sighed. This was getting old really fast. "Well what do you want then?" Sanji snarled around his freshly lit cigarette. God why is this idiot being so irritating today?

Zoro answered by bringing a fist to the back of Sanji's knees, causing the normally well balanced blonde to fall to the floor. Sanji yelped with surprise, causing his cigarette to fall to the floor a few feet away from where Sanji landed.

Sanji fell to the floor with a loud "Umph..." and an even louder "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?" Sanji glared at the man who remained under the kitchen table and smirked back at him with that stupid lopsided grin.

"I came to get you because you weren't coming to get me." Zoro said in a mocking tone, acting as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. He propped himself up on his elbow directing his attention toward the chef, seeming to wait for the other mans reaction.

"Wh- what? Don't say stupid shit like that!" Sanji said with the beginnings of what was most definitely NOT a blush brushing his cheeks.

Sanji attempted to get up but was stopped by a strong grip on his right wrist. "Let me go or so help me Zoro I will...AUGH," Sanji let out an unmanly yelp at the sudden action. Zoro had pulled him to the floor yet again, this time nearer to Zoro's side. Zoro wrapped his arms around the startled cook's midsection, while he settled himself and Sanji back under the table before easily rolling the blonde on top of him.

Sanji stiffened in surprise at his sudden change in position now resting just on top of the well-toned, swordsman's body. "What the hell are you doing?!" Sanji growled at the other man in a fierce tone.

The green-haired pirate blinked up at the face above his, noting the chef's expression. He decided it looked more surprised than pissed off right now, which was a good sign. He shifted his shoulder and wrapped both arms around the blonde, clasping his hands together and resting them on the small of Sanji's back. "What's wrong shit-cook? Why are you so tense?" Zoro asked in a voice an octave higher than normal meant to antagonize the cook.

Sanji's jaw dropped, face bright pink as he tried to squirm out of Zoro's hold. "You can't just do stuff like this!" he protested, trying to keep his voice down despite his panic but probably failing miserably anyway.

"Quit squirming around like that. You'll hit your head or something." Zoro murmured, moving one hand to the back of Sanji's head and pushing down so that the blonde's nose was pressed up against his collarbone. "Just relax, huh?"

"You obviously have no idea what's going on here!" Sanji continued to gripe against the other man, butting Zoro's chin with the top of his head in flustered protest. His attempt to escape was all but in vain against the swordsman's upper arm strength securely holding him in place.

"I do understand. You talk too much and you won't keep still," Zoro replied through gritted teeth.

Sanji butted him again, trying to worm his way out from Zoro's embrace. "If you'd let go of me it'd stop, you idiot!"

Zoro responded by shifting his legs, wrapping one around the chef's squirming hips. "Oi," he started, taking a deep breath, "I can't be responsible for what happens if you keep wriggling like that on top of me."

Sanji froze. Oh shit.

"LetgoLetgoLetgoLetgoLetgo..." Sanji chided, his volume growing with each passing second. He wiggled around in the Zoro's grasp, desperate to escape the other man's clutches. This was not happening, no way in hell!

The grip on his back suddenly loosened and without hesitation, Sanji quickly attempted to climb off of Zoro until he was stopped by and calloused hands on his cheeks. "H-hey Marimo wh-HMM!" Sanji attempted to stutter before his head was pulled down and chapped lips closed over his own.

It was a strange feeling to say the least. It's not like he's never kissed anyone before but Sanji was a man who considered himself to be a proper gentleman, only to be spurred on by the love of a woman. In the few relationships he had been in he was normally the one to initiate any sort of romantic contact toward a lady. But this was something else entirely. Zoro, however, the man who Sanji was almost entirely sure did not have a romantic bone in his body, was most definitely not a lady in any way shape or form.

Sanji was dumb-stuck for a few moments as Zoro's lips pressed into his own. It was a simple kiss. It wasn't a raunchy, sex-fueled, lip tearing, make out session but it wasn't a tentative, stereotypical, first kiss either. It wasn't filled with passion or lust or desire but perhaps something resembling withheld emotion. No, this kind of kiss was something that could only be accomplished by a certain green haired swordsman. The kiss was sure, steady, powerful, and mixed with the lingering taste of steel. It was just perfect. It was just Zoro.

It may have been a simple kiss but it defiantly wasn't insignificant. Sanji, knowing that this kiss might actually mean something to the Marimo, had a strange unidentifiable fluttering build up in his stomach. If the way the swordsman moved and kissed was anything to go by it was blatantly obvious he was putting everything he felt into that moment. Not to be outdone, however, Sanji steeled his nerves and kissed right back with a resolve rivaling the swordsman's.

For a moment it was like a stalemate in a fight. Both opponents locked an intense battle for dominance. Each competitor was evenly matched and formed a beautiful sort of harmony that can only be created when two people are at their limit.

Both men, understanding that this was a kind of battle that could not be won, pulled away almost suddenly in a small gasp of shared air. The men stared at each other, wide eyed and out of breath, noses nearly touching.

Although it wasn't a long or strenuous kiss it left Sanji absolutely breathless. Where the hell Zoro learned how to kiss like that, he had no idea.

"Wh-what was that?" Sanji breathed his voice barely above a whisper. He raised himself up on his elbows in an effort to balance himself on Zoro's chest.

Zoro shrugged "Depends"

"Depends on what?" Sanji asked, taking a deep breath, almost afraid of the answer.

"Depends on what you wanted that to be."

Oh.

He was giving him a chance to get out of it and to act as though it never even happened. They would both go their own ways and be done with it. But whether or not Sanji really wanted to forget about it, he wasn't really sure. Sanji could honestly see this going one of two ways. He and the Marimo could use each other as temporary fuck- buddies until they got tired of each other or maybe, just maybe, something could actually come out of this. What exactly was Zoro looking to achieve?

Sanji groaned and let his head fall on Zoro's waiting shoulder. This was too much to take in at once. Stupid, moronic, asexual, Marimo, making him question his own fucking sanity over a simple kiss.

Sanji felt vibrations travel through his body as low chuckles emitted from the man beneath him. Sanji sighed "What is it asshole? I'm not in the mood for any more of your antics."

"You're blowing this way out of proportion, cook. You, you're just so... you're just so Sanji" Zoro stuttered out between bouts of laughter.

Sanji bristled. "And what EXACTLY do you mean by that?" Sanji really didn't need more of Zoro's mind-fuck games to go along with the emotional turmoil going on in his mind and that damn fluttering in his stomach.

Fuck. When had he become such a mess.

Zoro simply smiled back up at him. "Depends on what you wanted it to mean."

"Fuck you."

"You see! That's what I like about you. You're just... you're just you. You're perfect." Zoro said, his voice quietly trailing off.

Sanji's previously receding blush quickly crawled back onto his cheeks in full force. "If you're trying to find perfection you better keep looking because you aren't going to find it here." Sanji cast his gaze downward in a vain attempt to hide his face from the man below him.

"Sanji." Zoro growled in tone that would scare most lesser men, the laughter instantaneously gone from his voice. Sanji simply shuddered. "Sanji, look at me." Zoro, his voice soft, put his hands up to Sanji's face and slowly turned the other man's head until Zoro could look into the single blue orb that could be seen through a mess of blonde hair.

"I've spent almost my whole life looking for perfection." Zoro started, rubbing slow circles with his thumbs on Sanji's cheeks. "It's my duty as a swordsman to always reach forward, look for those who are better than you, and eventually beat them."

Sanji lightly snorted, the only sign he gave to show the swordsman he was listening.

"This is the life I choose, this is the life I must live." Zoro continued, ignoring Sanji's interruption. My dream is to be the best, to reach my goal and become that allusive perfection that so many of us swordsman strive for. So don't insult me by telling be that you're not perfect because I know what true perfection looks like and that's you."

Sanji sighed and pressed his face into the crook of Zoro's shoulder. "Shitty Marimo." he muttered almost inaudibly. "Don' t say stuff you can't take back."

"Meh-meh cook" Zoro murmured in a tone some would call affectionate, others might call it taunting. He slowly ran his hand through the mop of blonde hair that fell forward and lightly brushed against his neck. "I wouldn't take something like that back even if someone threatened me with my life. You know I always mean what I say."

The blonde cook pressed his face further into the swordsman's body, hoping that if he pushed himself hard enough he would just disappear. Of course nothing was really that easy. "You're making this rather difficult for me you know that?" Sanji suddenly pushed himself up and proceeded to adjust himself atop the swordsman so he could make eye contact with the other man. "It's not like I can say no to that ugly mug of yours after you confess like that."

It was Zoro this time who had a light shade of pink brush over his cheeks."I wasn't confessing anything to you Cook," Zoro said indignantly.

"Say it Marimo, you LIKE me." Sanji smirked, emphasizing each word with a small poke to the swordsman's chest.

"Heh. In your dreams. I don't like you." Zoro turned his head upwards, a small pout just beginning to graze his features.

"Do too."

"Do not."

"Do too!"

"Do NOT!"

"Well I must make you feel something if I made you confess like that..." Sanji trailed off, trying to suppress the smile threatening to break out onto his face.

"Yeah, you make me feel pretty annoyed Shit-cook." Zoro said whilst ruffling the other mans hair, covering both of Sanji's sea blue eyes in the process.

"Take that back asshole." Sanji growled.

"I can't take something like that back! I always mean what I say."

"Shut-up Moss ball"

"Make me."

"Gladly." Sanji smiled before leaning forward and silencing the Marimo with a quick kiss to the lips. "Now tell me Marimo, what do you think that meant?"

"It meant what I wanted it to mean?" Zoro asked, voice even.

"Exactly. Now kiss me again before I change my mind."

Zoro simply smirked and for once did what he was told.